Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, KY (4-13-15)

Big Bone Lick State Historic Site...when you see the sign off Interstate 75 south of Cincinnati you're bound to get a chuckle and wonder how the heck someone came up with that for a place name. Many, many times I had passed those signs but never made a point of pulling off to check it out...until now. What I found was a park every bit as unique as it name implies.

The name of the park is derived in two parts. 'Lick' is simply another name for a small stream much like 'creek' or 'run' in other parts of the country...here it is in reference to Big Bone Creek. The 'Big Bone' part? Well, that's where things get interesting. Way back in 1739 early French explorers visited the site and discovered a treasure-trove of massive bones littering the landscape. Over the intervening decades others passed through and also marveled at the ancient graveyard but it was another local commodity which promised greater wealth...salt. Salt springs were dotted all over the landscape and, between 1780 and 1810, a bustling salt trade centered on Big Bone Lick. By 1803, however, focus was also shifting back towards the study of the areas bones and scientists began regularly visiting Big Bone Lick, sending specimens back east to be studied more closely. Eventually word of the extraordinary place reached President Thomas Jefferson who, in 1807, sent General William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame) to collect specimens, 300 of which were sent back to the White House. Over the following years thousands of bones of numerous prehistoric animals including Mammoths, Mastodons, Stag-moose, Bison, and Giant Ground Sloths were identified. Dating back to the end of the last Ice Age, these were the remains of creatures who perished in the salt marshes surrounding Big Bone Creek. Drawn by the same salt that drew the first settlers, these giant creatures would either be mired in the marshes and perish or be picked off as easy prey while they fed by prehistoric natives. Sediments deposited over the millenia then covered and preserved the bones.

Billed as the "Birthplace of American Vertebrate Paleontology," Big Bone Lick State Historic Site was established in 1960 to preserve the integrity of the site and to provide a place to display the ancient artifacts for a curious public. Since the establishment of the park a small herd of bison has also been reintroduced, returning a majestic creature missing from the local landscape since the end of the 18th Century. On our brief afternoon visit we tried to hit the highlights of the park. A fascinating collection of ancient bones can be seen (including an almost intact mastodon skull!), life-size statuettes of the ancient creatures stand in a replicated salt marsh, and trails pass by numerous bubbling salt springs and Big Bone Creek itself. Like I said previously...it a very unique place. Come along and see what we discovered...

Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, KY (4-13-15)

After a pleasant and short drive through the rolling Kentucky countryside we arrived at the park...

Our (approximate) Route...

Big Bone Lick State Park Visitor Center

A rather unassuming visitor center...

Visitor Center - Mastodon Skull

You are greeted, upon entering the visitor center, by this giant mastodon skull which was found nearby in the 1950's. Roaming the area as recently as 10,000 years ago these massive creatures could reach 8-10 feet in height and weigh in at 4-6 tons...

Visitor Center - Mastodon Tibia

The strength of these creatures is apparent in this massive tibia (leg bone) which had to support the mastodon's 4-6 ton weight...

Visitor Center - Mastodon Vertebra

One of the massive bones from the spine of a mastodon...

Visitor Center - Mastodon Tooth

Mastodon bones have been recovered in the Big Bone Lick area since 1729. In fact, some of the first natural history specimens sent back to Europe by the first explorers of the area were giant teeth like these...

Visitor Center - Lowland Meadow

This tiny patch of tall grasses represents the pre-settlement landscape of the river lowlands. These lowlands were very prairie-type with few, if any, trees. After settlement these grassy lowlands were cleared and/or burned so they are virtually non-existent today...

Prehistoric Bog Exhibit

Exiting the visitor center we wandered around to the adjacent prehistoric bog exhibit which contains sculpture models of the ancient creatures who once roamed here...

Prehistoric Bog Exhibit - Mastodon

Though most people use the names Mastodon and Mammoth interchangeably, they were actually two distinct species. This is a Mastodon which had a flatter head and shorter tusks than its relative...

Prehistoric Bog Exhibit - Giant Ground Sloth

Yet another of the prehistoric creatures whose remains have been found here was the Giant Ground Sloth. More modern creatures' bones have also been found here including moose, caribou, elk, deer, and bison...

Prehistoric Bog Exhibit

With a mastodon in the rear, a mammoth (note the longer tusks and domed head) half submerged in the middle, and a hopelessly mired buffalo in the foreground, the bog exhibit displays how creatures would become trapped in these wet lowlands. Their bones would then be preserved in the salt containing sediments...

Big Bone Creek Trailhead

Time for a short hike along Big Bone Creek...

Big Bone Creek Trail

From the beginning of the trail you get a good view of the surrounding river lowland environment...

Big Bone Creek Trail

Hard to imagine that only a couple hundred years ago this was all grassland...

Big Bone Creek Trail

After only a few minutes of walking we passed the first of the area's many Salt Springs. Formed by water seeping through salty, subsurface layers of bedrock the bubbling springs emit a strong sulfurous smell. This is the type of location which trapped so many ancient animals...

Big Bone Creek Trail

Making a right to see a few more salt springs...

Big Bone Creek Trail

An elevated platform provided a close up look at one of the larger salt springs...

Big Bone Creek Trail

You could actually see bubbles oozing up out of the brine...interesting but quite nasty...I wish Smugmug had smell-O-vision for you...

Big Bone Creek Trail

After spending the previous week in the frozen North Woods of Michigan it was nice to be back amongst the greens of spring once again...

Big Bone Creek

This is the somewhat unattractive stream from which the park gets its name. Of course I don't know what this creek 'normally' looks like but it seemed low to me...

Mary Draper Ingles

One of the more famous people who passed through here was the unfortunate Mary Draper Ingles. Captured by the Shawnee in 1755 she was brought to the Big Bone Creek area to collect salt for the natives and observed a number of the bones scattered about. Fortunately, on the return walk to Ohio, Ingles and a companion managed to escape...

Big Bone Creek Trail

White I believe to be a White-throated Sparrow serenaded us as we passed...

Big Bone Creek Trail

There were a few of these small run-off 'streams' criss-crossing the lowlands...

Big Bone Creek Trail

The reason for the disappearance of Big Bone Lick's ancient creatures is somewhat of a mystery. It is thought one possible reason might be the change in forest type which took place with the warming that followed the last Ice Age. During the glacial period the forests here resembled the boreal regions of northern Canada today. It is possible that the change in food source which came with the change to a more deciduous woodland caused the creatures to move away...

Big Bone Creek Trail

Recent rains had left a number of these shallow flooded pools along the trail...

Big Bone Creek Trail

The trail once again came alongside Big Bone Creek at its confluence with Gum Branch...

Big Bone Creek Trail

The first leaves of spring...

Purple Dead-nettle

Lamium purpureum

Dutchman's Breeches

Dicentra cucullaria

Big Bone Creek Trail

Following the creek...

Spring Beauty

Claytonia virginica

White Springcress

Cardamine bulbosa

Wild Blue Phlox

Phlox divaricata

Big Bone Creek Trail

As it turns out Big Bone Creek is quite good at unearthing ancient remains. As stream-banks erode it is quite common to find newly exposed bones...

Big Bone Creek Trail

The farther along the creek we walked, the deeper and wider it became...

Big Bone Creek Trail

The creek-side trail...

Lesser Celandine

Ranunculus ficaria

Big Bone Creek Trail

Not sure why but I found these rather stark lowland woods quite beautiful...

Big Bone Creek Trail

This section of trail follows what was once an old Bison Trace. Herds of bison would once follow the river through here to get to the salt springs. Though the bison was hunted to extinction in these parts by 1800 this 15-foot wide section of the trace has been preserved by the park...

Honey-locust Tree

The frightening thorns of Gleditsia triacanthos...

Big Bone Creek Trail

Disappointingly, it was a bit anti-climactic to discover the loop finished via this paved road...

Bison Trace Trail

We decided that we shouldn't leave without making the quick side trip out to see the parks herd of bison...

White Trout-lily

Erythronium albidum

Bison Trace Trail

The trail climbed up out of the lowlands providing a change in the composition of the surrounding woodlands...